The present invention relates to a method of inspecting the ends of stacked cigarettes.
Before being fed on to a packing machine, the cigarettes coming off a manufacturing machine are normally inspected to determine conformance with a number of predetermined characteristics.
The introduction of newly designed filters, some featuring one or more axial channels of predetermined section, now makes it necessary to inspect the free end of the filter to determine conformance of the same with a predetermined model.
The cigarettes coming off a filter assembly machine are normally fed in bulk to a packing machine, either along a continuous conveyor belt or inside containers or boxes. In either case, the cigarettes are arranged one on top of the other with their opposite ends substantially aligned in two planes perpendicular to the cigarette axis.